(Romereports) Pope Francis explained during his Mass homily at Casa Santa Marta that the attitudes of Christians should be joyful and festive. He added that people need to trust in the power of Christ, the Church’s groom, and he asked Christians to live with the same joy often found in weddings.

POPE FRANCIS
“But we will always be tempted to cast this newness of the Gospel, this new wine, into old attitudes … It is sin, we are all sinners. Only recognize it: ‘This is a sin.’ Do not say this goes with this. No! The old wineskins cannot hold the new wine. This is the novelty of the Gospel. Jesus is the bridegroom, the bridegroom who weds the Church, the groom who loves the Church, who gives his life for the Church. Jesus is the one who makes this wedding feast! Jesus asks us the joy of festivity, the joy of being Christians. He also asks of us the all: it’s all Him. If we have something that is not of Him, repent, ask for forgiveness and move on.”

The Pope explained that this marriage union between Christ and the Church shows why the Church has looked at marriage as the “great sacrament.”

EXCERPTS FROM POPE’S HOMILY
(Source: Vatican Radio)

The Christian is fundamentally joyful. For this reason, at the end of the Gospel, when they bring the wine, when he speaks of wine, it makes me think of the wedding at Cana – and for this reason Jesus works His miracle – this is why Our Lady, when she realized that there was no more wine… but if there is no wine there is no party … imagining that the wedding feast might therefore end with the drinking of tea or juice: it would not do … it is a feast, and Our Lady asks for the miracle. Such is the Christian life. The Christian life has this joyfulness of spirit, a joyfulness of heart.

It occurs to us: ‘But, Father, how? These were found on street corners, and you ask of them a wedding garment? This is wrong … What does this mean? It is very simple! God asks only one thing of us in order that we gain admittance to the feast: our all. The Bridegroom is the most important. The Bridegroom fills all! This brings us to the first reading, which speaks so powerfully of Jesus as the all – the firstborn of all creation. In Him were created all things, through Him and with a view to Him were they created. He is the center: the all.

Jesus is also the Head of the Body of the Church: He is the principle. God gave to him fullness, totality, in order that, in Him, all things might be reconciled. The second attitude is [that of] recognizing Him as the One. The Lord asks us only this: to recognize Him as the One Bridegroom. He is always faithful, and asks fidelity of us. This is why when we desire, to have a little party of our own, which is not that great feast, it does not do. The Lord tells us that we cannot serve two masters: one either serves God, or the world.

This is the second Christian attitude: to recognize Jesus as the whole, the center, the totality. But we will always be tempted to cast this newness of the Gospel, this new wine, into old attitudes … It is sin, we are all sinners. Only recognize it: ‘This is a sin.’ Do not say this goes with this. No! The old wineskins cannot hold the new wine. This is the novelty of the Gospel. Jesus is the bridegroom, the bridegroom who weds the Church, the groom who loves the Church, who gives his life for the Church. Jesus is the one who makes this wedding feast! Jesus asks us the joy of festivity, the joy of being Christians. He also asks of us the all: it’s all Him. If we have something that is not of Him, repent, ask for forgiveness and move on. May the Lord give us, to all of us, the grace always to have this joy, as if we were attending a wedding. And also have this faithfulness to the only bridegroom, who is the Lord.